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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24470854">wounding skies that stretch so widely</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedmachinery/pseuds/icedmachinery'>icedmachinery</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemachine/pseuds/icemachine'>icemachine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doom Patrol (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Horror, Incomprehensible, Introspection, Larry's mind is fucked pt 2, Neopronouns, mazes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:06:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,997</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24470854</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedmachinery/pseuds/icedmachinery, https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemachine/pseuds/icemachine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Before Keeg figures out how to watch the outside world, xe has to make it through the maze. In the center: the windows of Larry, peering through into external reality. Xe just has to get there.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Keeg Bovo &amp; Larry Trainor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Gen Prompt Bingo Round 18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23074354">this willow tree is skeletal</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedmachinery/pseuds/icedmachinery">icedmachinery</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemachine/pseuds/icemachine">icemachine</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The gibberish-like words in italics are actually part of a constructed language I made with Keeg in mind! See <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WOpg0WfROzuGTh_ZEOiW_wTt0atKoz1sHU7t3x1WYNc/edit?usp=sharing">this document,</a> for more information.</p><p>This is so self indulgent. We're hitting levels of incoherent that shouldn't be possible!! This wasn't supposed to be multichapter but Im tired of looking at it right now, it'll be finished soon though.</p><p>Also a fill for my <a href="https://genprompt-bingo.dreamwidth.org/">genprompt-bingo</a> card, "I walk through the valley of death."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Xe knows only darkness; hovering above the Earth there was only darkness, an omnipresent darkness chasing the globe eternally. One may think the Earth holds light, from the electric creations humanity has built, formed from nothing in their hands—-Keeg does not know this yet, does not know creation or humanity, and so: only darkness, never light, never-light as xe is weightless, xe sees Larry Trainor and in his mind is only</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>d a r k n e s s </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It can’t be like this for everyone. Can it? Is every member of the human race so utterly </span>
  <em>
    <span>empty?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The darkness</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>of space.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>There is darkness, and darkness again, and Keeg is the prey, it is bounding after xer with long talons connected to long, unholy (what is holiness - why does xe have this word on xer mind like it is the entire universe) fingers connected to a body that xe can, for some reason, recognize as deformed. Keeg has personified darkness and the Darkness is still hunting xer. Darkness has several rows of Unholy Teeth which are beings themselves and they speak words. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Gaxihh hel hhuhi. Khekkoh, khaveh, buval. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Wrong language. In English, which is now bleeding through xer mind (unbearable) (unbearable) (unholy) (unholy): </span>
  <em>
    <span>shatter the prey, punish, hate, attack. </span>
  </em>
  <span>The Unholy Teeth are sharp. Shatter the prey. Can xe be shattered? Can humanity be shattered, like prey? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Darkness is closer, now, its talons scraping against xer heels — oh, xe has a </span>
  <em>
    <span>form </span>
  </em>
  <span>now and the form looks like Captain Larry Trainor — same height same body same similar </span>
  <em>
    <span>bubuhh buvol </span>
  </em>
  <span>(same force). Darkness has its hands on Keeg Bovo and the hands of Darkness are so - so - </span>
  <em>
    <span>cold, </span>
  </em>
  <span>and the room is cold and Larry is cold and how </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>can</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>xe</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>feel</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>cold?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Xe has a word for it now — what space felt like. Cold. Let’s turn space into Space like we did with Darkness. Both concepts are predators. Both concepts are unholy. Both concepts are unforgiving.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Darkness has its hands on Keeg and Darkness darkness Darkness is ready to bite in, Darkness (darkness) is baring its Unholy Teeth and there are so many, xer mind is human-shaped humanity-tainted now and cannot count them, cannot comprehend the extent of how these Teeth operate, cannot figure out how infinitely they expand. Xe knows: there are many, and Space is vast and boundless, and Darkness is vast and boundless, and there are too many concept personifications to keep track of now. Keeg has to think about concepts like they are beings, because they are less real if they are alive. Xe is sentient; xe can still run.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Xe knows: this darkness is hungry. Insatiable. Keeg, however, cannot escape. There many things that xe has found xerself unable to do since the merge, such as: escape. Such as: count teeth and personifications that xe imagined to keep xerself safe. There are many things that xe has found xerself now able to do, fresh abilities in the mind within the mind, such as: imagine. In coherent ideas, xe can now imagine.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Larry Trainor has changed xer. Similar to the concept of eternal darkness; that can never be forgiven.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So! Just as the darkness is about to sink its teeth into Keeg’s frame, there is a - </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>a</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>there is a</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>there</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>is</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>there i</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>s</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>a</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Light</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There is a light.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>It begins small, like a baby, and grows larger with time, also like a baby. The room is dark until it isn’t. It isn’t a room until it is. The light increases and expands until it can no longer be classified as a human life and then xer surroundings are entirely white. There are clear boundaries in this room; it is constricted, and xe cannot move xer body through the walls.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then. Until.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Xer vision locates it: a door. Actually, an archway, upon closer look. Keeg approaches it and sees nothing on the other side but gray static; there is a sign nailed to the top of it, the words written shakily. It would be incomprehensible to anyone who does not live within the mind of the person who wrote it. It says: </span>
  <em>
    <span>MAZE ENTRANCE.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maze entrance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Xe considers it; there is no other way out. There is no escape. There will never be a way out —- they are stuck together, merged, melted and transformed, perpetually. Xe cannot flee. So Keeg steps into the gray static, merges once again, and</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>A field. Xe has never seen the surface of Earth, knows it is a field anyways. The sky is a fuse of purple and orange; the grass is emerald-colored sacred, and the space around xer is large, enclosed by several white concrete walls that rise up as far as xe can see. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There are four pathways in front of xer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This seems familiar.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Keeg - a new discovery - does not know what to do.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Almost as if on God-given cue, a woman appears in front of xer — taking a closer look, this is Larry’s wife, wrapped in skin that has been wrecked by fear —- </span>
  <em>
    <span>how does xe know this — </span>
  </em>
  <span>and she moves robotic, approaching with stiff movements. Her eyes are glowing red; this means bad, this color is a bad color, there is only horror here.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Welcome to the maze,” she says; her voice is metallic, strained. “There is a reward for you at the center. Good luck.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then every part of “Sheryl Trainor’s” “body” falls to the grass, like doll parts. Like a child’s doll, being dissected in front of young eyes as sick punishment—-</span>
  <em>
    <span>is that a memory—-</span>
  </em>
  <span>there are too many memories here and xe can feel them now, burning - scorching. Xer form feels sensation here, suffers, inside of Larry Trainor’s mind.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Where does xe go? What path does xe pick? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Keeg feels as if the answer should be obvious, or will be obvious when xe gets closer. Xe gets closer. Floats closer. Rests xer feet on the grass—--hm, </span>
  <em>
    <span>warm, </span>
  </em>
  <span>in contrast—-and approaches the pathways. The walls separating the pathways are also concrete white. The gaps in between each pathway look like space, look like that eternal Darkness. Xe reaches out and</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>touches.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The gaps between each pathway’s entrance are small —- just big enough to fit a hand in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It sends excruciating pain throughout xer entire body; xe doesn’t know what xe expected, this man only knows suffering, this man is drowning in the pain that Keeg feels.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Xe has to pick a path.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Xe does not know how to pick a path.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Xe does not know how to pick a path, and xe is still touching the Darkness. Perhaps xe deserves the burning—-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>N O.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That is Larry’s internal voice mixing with xers; Keeg does not deserve this, no one deserves this, no one should have to face this eternal fire——-no being in the universe should be pried open and bared to the world—-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Pried open.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bared to the world.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>An idea sparks within xer. An outsider would be able to see it; the idea sparks gold-colored as opposed to the rest of xer pale blue existence, and it pulses intensely.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Xe places eight fingers - both hands, new body - into the gap, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>pulls.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>doesn’t</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>require much </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>force.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>It does not take much for the pathways to crumble. The ones xe has connected xerself to fall first, evaporating into the False Unholy Air, and the other two pathways follow; instead of evaporating they crash and shatter onto the warm grass, robbing it of its warmth. Xe jumps into the air, and remains there; instinct, too many things here are fueled by primal instinct. Xe was created, and so xe should have no instinct, only composure.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Is it—--</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Larry—-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The surroundings clear. In front of Keeg: a road. In front of Keeg: a road, that leads to a neighborhood where every house looks the same. Xe steps onto the road—-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“CONGRATULATIONS,”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> booms a loud loud louder voice, and then, as the volume slowly decreases, like a machine dying,</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> “YOU MADE IT!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But this isn’t the center of the maze; xe isn’t stupid. It simply means that xe has made it to the next layer of the maze. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Keeg is going to be here for a while.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Each house in this false-prayer neighborhood looks the same. It would look perfect, the utter beauty of plainness. Clean, off-white fences, no scratches or specks of halodirt; grass an unnatural shade of green; the knowledge that this is all too beautiful to be true, and Keeg has nothing to base this on, no prior knowledge of Neighborhoods or Houses, but oh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>xe does. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Xe does. Larry Trainor once lived in a house and it was off-white and sickening and unholy. The houses in this neighborhood ring and wail </span>
  <em>
    <span>normalcy. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Larry, however, did not, does not, never will.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But what is </span>
  <em>
    <span>normalcy, </span>
  </em>
  <span>anyway? Thinks: </span>
  <em>
    <span>bibluk (</span>
  </em>
  <span>prison), thinks: </span>
  <em>
    <span>honok’a (</span>
  </em>
  <span>wound). Normalcy, xe understands it now, is a prison, a wound in the chest that he just cannot help but scratch and scratch until Larry Trainor is unrecognizable, a bloodied thing to mirror his inner thoughts. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s odd, how xe understood this by merely looking at the houses. Xe understands a lot now, about humanity, or Larry understands a lot about humanity and it’s just bleeding over into xer mind, but that doesn’t matter; xe understands and that is enough.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Anyway: the houses. As Keeg floats closer, xe notices that each house has a word hanging in the air, mystifying, over its entrance. The one closest to xer says </span>
  <em>
    <span>LOVE; </span>
  </em>
  <span>the one across the street says </span>
  <em>
    <span>HOPE, </span>
  </em>
  <span>but </span>
  <em>
    <span>HOPE’s </span>
  </em>
  <span>house has no door. This is the only thing distinguishing it from the other houses; there is no way in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Larry has no hope; this is the entire truth, and there are no plot holes here, no pockets where the words fall through and crack against windows and floors. Larry Trainor is hopeless. Larry’s hope died the minute he Felt the Unbearable Feeling, and became what is perceived as - as - as - well - </span>
  <em>
    <span>unholy.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This is one thing that Keeg doesn’t understand.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The only crime that Larry Trainor has committed is: love, love, the feeling of love &amp; allowing the body to be filled by the act of loving. Larry loved loved loved and isn’t that supposed to be admirable, here? Isn’t love a celebrated feeling? How can love ever be criminal? The concept of loving is the only concept inside of this man that </span>
  <em>
    <span>isn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>alien to Keeg, but he has suffered because of this love, has been trapped-wrapped up in wounding fear because of this love, and Keeg</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>just can’t</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>understand</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>why.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Xe approaches the house labeled </span>
  <em>
    <span>LOVE, </span>
  </em>
  <span>in an attempt to chase this knowledge. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s selfish. Xe knows that is selfish when xe puts xer hand on the door, knows that it is selfish when the door opens and oh! Oh! </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This is the </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>
    <span class="big">
      <span class="big">
        <span class="big">
          <span class="big">
            <span class="big">WRONG CHOICE.</span>
          </span>
        </span>
      </span>
    </span>
  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The neighborhood must know that it is the wrong choice, as well, because the door opens and opens and opens and opens and opens and - keeps opening, the door flipping from closed and locked to wide open, and the house is no longer perfect and shining-like-holiness; </span>
  <em>
    <span>n o w </span>
  </em>
  <span>the house is bleeding, thick red blood trickling down and passing through xer body onto the newly-dead grass, which has grown small teeth on both sides of each blade. The grass detaches itself from the ground and swirls around in a dance that mimics a tornado; a natural disaster, hungry; and then it forms a body. A giant, masculine body. Faceless. It looks like every man that Larry has ever thought about, every image that crept into his mind at night, in dreams, at night.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This… is love?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Is this what love is like? Does every human experience this?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Keeg runs. The grassbody is chasing xer, now, everything happening </span>
  <em>
    <span>now, </span>
  </em>
  <span>and xer feet are on the ground stumbling and running and running and running, like humanity. Keeg runs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Keeg keeps running, selfishly.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Kudos and feedback appreciated if you actually read this whole thing</p></blockquote></div></div>
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